James Nasti was an avid runner, cyclist and mountaineer who had been on an 11-year quest to climb the highest points in all 50 states. But upon reaching his 49th high point on the 4th of July, the Naperville father of three collapsed and died on the summit of Mt. McKinley in Alaska, apparently of a heart attack.

Because of treacherous conditions atop the 20,320-foot peak, Nasti's body could not be recovered. Instead, an expedition from the tour company he climbed with buried him there Sunday.

It was a fitting finish to a full life, family and friends said. "It's actually kind of comforting," Chris Nasti, 24, his eldest son, said Monday. "If he was going to die of a heart attack, there's probably no better place to have done it than that. If he was to be laid to rest anywhere, the top of North America is probably the best place for him."

Nasti, 51, was the first person to die on Mt. McKinley's summit, according to the National Park Service, although 101 have died on the mountain since 1932. One of those was a climber who died in 1988 while descending from the summit, said Maureen McLaughlin, a public information officer at Denali National Park and Preserve.

Altogether, 38 bodies, including Nasti's, have not been recovered from the mountain, she said.

Nasti's quest to reach the peak began June 20, when he and a friend joined three other climbers and two guides. After Nasti collapsed after reaching the peak Friday, the guides tried unsuccessfully to resuscitate him. Denali National Park rangers at a 14,200-foot camp were notified and told the team with Nasti to descend to a 17,200-foot camp.

The apex of the summit is an exposed flat area about the size of a single-car garage, McLaughlin said. Just below the summit is a 500-foot-long "knife-edge ridge." Park service officials determined that neither a technical rescue involving a rope-rigging system nor a helicopter rescue attempt was safe enough to try.

Because members of Alpine Ascents International were going back to the summit Sunday, they asked—and were granted—permission to bury him.

---------------------------------------------------------Another climber dies on McKinleyMystery: As with a Friday death, there's no obvious cause.

By Lisa Demer, Anchorage Daily News, July 9, 2008

The second climber in a week died suddenly on a guided trip to Mount McKinley on Monday night, and mountaineers are looking for answers: Why did two seemingly healthy men collapse at or near the top of the big mountain.

Pungkas Tri Baruno, from Jakarta, Indonesia, was 20 years old and apparently fit, one of three young climbers on an expedition connected with the country's national scouting organization. Baruno made it to the 20,320 foot summit Monday and almost back to high camp at 17,200 feet.

He descended the West Buttress route slowly but steadily. The wind picked up, clouds moved in and it began to snow. His guide kept asking him whether he felt nauseous or dizzy. Baruno said he didn't feel sick, according to Todd Rutledge, co-owner of the guiding company, Mountain Trip.

Then, roped to his guide, maybe 15 minutes from camp, Baruno gave out. "I can't go on," he told his guide, then collapsed. The others had gone ahead. His guide radioed for help, then he and other guides spent more than an hour trying to revive Baruno, said the National Park Service. But they couldn't bring him back.

He was the fourth mountaineer to die on Denali this climbing season.

Three days earlier on July 4, 51-year-old James Nasti of the Chicago area collapsed and died just as he reached the summit of North America's tallest peak. He was in good shape, too, a man who had climbed Mount Rainier twice -- middle-aged but with no history of heart trouble, his family said.

"It really seems like a horrible coincidence. We don't know what happened to either of these two climbers, really, but they were both very sudden onsets," Rutledge said.

It may take a while to load. Then turn your sound on and click "watch photoshow" or click on any thumbnail to look at individual pictures. I will probably revise it when I get pictures from the other team members.

Friday, June 6, 2008

---------------------------------------------Denali mountaineering rangers led a life-saving technical rope rescue of a fallen solo climber on Mt. McKinley the evening of June 3.

Claude Ratté, age 44, of Montreal, Quebec was descending the West Buttress route from the 17,200-foot high camp to the 14,200-foot camp when he fell almost 2,000 feet down to the Peters Glacier. The climber fell from an elevation of approximately 16,400 feet down a 35 to 40 degree snow and ice slope, suffering facial trauma and a leg and ankle injury in the fall. Ratté was able to use his satellite phone to dial 9-1-1 shortly before noon on Tuesday. Alaska State Troopers connected the distressed climber with Denali National Park rangers who initiated a ground rescue. The high altitude Lama helicopter was unable to fly due to heavy cloud cover.

Denali's West Buttress route. Claude Ratté fell 2,000 feet down the steep snow slopes to the left of the ridge crest, below the 17,200-foot camp. Rescuers hauled him back to the ridge and then lowered him to the 14,200-foot camp to await evacuation. Image courtesy of Costnet.com/denali.

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Denali's West Buttress route. Claude Ratté fell 2,000 feet down the steep snow slopes to the left of the ridge crest, below the 17,200-foot camp. Rescuers hauled him back to the ridge and then lowered him to the 14,200-foot camp to await evacuation. Image courtesy of Costnet.com/denali. _______________________________________________________

A hasty team led by NPS mountaineering ranger Brandon Latham mobilized immediately from the 17,200-foot high camp, reaching the injured climber within three to four hours. A second rescue team led by mountaineering ranger Mik Shain climbed up the fixed lines from the 14,200-foot camp to assist in the elaborate technical rope rescue.

After an initial medical assessment was performed by the first responders, Ratté was secured in a rescue litter and the labor-intensive technical rope rescue commenced. Using multiple anchored rope systems, the patient was first raised 2,000 feet back up to the 16,200-foot elevation on West Buttress ridge, before being lowered 2,000 feet down the Headwall to the NPS ranger camp at 14,200 feet. From the time of the initial distress call, the entire ground rescue operation took 10.5 hours and involved 14 ground rescuers including mountaineering rangers, NPS volunteers, mountain guides, and independent climbers.

Denali mountaineering staff estimates there have been at least 10 significant climbing falls onto the Peters Glacier, including three separate fatalities in 1998. The technical rope rescue of Ratté involves the longest raising operation in Denali mountaineering history.

As of the morning of June 4, Ratté remains in serious but stable medical condition at the 14,200-foot camp awaiting helicopter evacuation. With improving weather conditions on the mountain, the patient is expected to be flown off this afternoon and transferred to an Anchorage-based air ambulance for further medical care.

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Team GORCA are off the mountain and back in talkeetna after waiting for the weather to clear. The plane ahead of theirs could not get adequate altitude to take off and had to re-land lower down on the glacier. We are glad they have made it back to the land of showers and beer!

The team is at the 7000 foot base camp waiting for weather to allow flights.Weather is supposed to get worse overnight, so if it doesn' t clear today who knows when they will get out. Again the phone was cutting in and out, so no more details of the climb.